Mapping Indigenous Missoula
Written histories often suggest that, from the last decades of the 1800s through the Second World War, Indian people in the U.S. and Canada were rural and reservation-bound: urban Indian communities didn’t form until the postwar period, when termination and relocation propelled Indian migration to cities. This periodization stems in part from the fact that studies of Indian history in ca.1870 to 1940 tend to focus on reservations, and on the groups officially associated with them. In turn, this geographic focus implies that, in this, the “reservation era,” indigenous people were rural, sedentary and reservation-bound. In doing so, it follows American and Canadian Indian policy of the period: off-reservation places were forbidden to Indians, who were generally supposed to stay within the bounds of the reservation on which they were enrolled. The fact that the region’s urban areas were outside of reserve boundaries meant that these spaces—which after 1860 increased in size, number and importance—were officially off-limits to people deemed Indian.
In contrast, during research for her book manuscript, Dr. Hagen documented mass indigenous migration during the “reservation era.” This migration traced a network of Northern Plains routes and communities that included urban neighborhoods. Mixed indigenous groups consistently used the fringe areas of most of the region’s settlements. These peripheral neighborhoods endured on the edges of urban areas for decades, and constituted a recognized urban indigenous geography. They included places like Winnipeg’s “Rooster Flats”; the eight different neighborhood clusters that constituted Great Falls, Montana’s’ “Buckskin Fringe” (including Hill 57, Wire Mill, and Mount Royal); and the “Moccasin Flats” areas of cities like Billings, Helena, Medicine Hat, and Calgary.
Mapping Indigenous Missoula is the first of a series of city mapping projects that will document these early and enduring urban Indian communities. It identifies and explores, at a household or storefront level, the people and places of indigenous Missoula. In doing so it shows how the histories of urban areas, immigration and labor relate to the history of Indian people in the “reservation era.”.
This research project is in progress.
In contrast, during research for her book manuscript, Dr. Hagen documented mass indigenous migration during the “reservation era.” This migration traced a network of Northern Plains routes and communities that included urban neighborhoods. Mixed indigenous groups consistently used the fringe areas of most of the region’s settlements. These peripheral neighborhoods endured on the edges of urban areas for decades, and constituted a recognized urban indigenous geography. They included places like Winnipeg’s “Rooster Flats”; the eight different neighborhood clusters that constituted Great Falls, Montana’s’ “Buckskin Fringe” (including Hill 57, Wire Mill, and Mount Royal); and the “Moccasin Flats” areas of cities like Billings, Helena, Medicine Hat, and Calgary.
Mapping Indigenous Missoula is the first of a series of city mapping projects that will document these early and enduring urban Indian communities. It identifies and explores, at a household or storefront level, the people and places of indigenous Missoula. In doing so it shows how the histories of urban areas, immigration and labor relate to the history of Indian people in the “reservation era.”.
This research project is in progress.